The present invention relates to a toe-base protecting device which is designed to dry the base portion between a pair of adjacent ones of the five toes so as to relieve it from sweatiness and dampness.
The base portion between a pair of adjacent toes readily gets sweaty because the two adjacent toes are likely to come into close contact with each other.
For this reason, the base portion between a pair of adjacent toes is likely to develop ringworm, for example, athlete's foot.
It is therefore necessary to dry the base portion between toes.
FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a conventional toe-base protecting device which is designed to dry a portion between toes.
As illustrated, the conventional toe-base protecting device 80 comprises a bag-shaped member which is formed from a piece of gauze or cotton cloth in the shape of a bag so as to wrap the toe-side half of a foot. The bag-shaped member is provided at the closed end with bag-shaped toe insertion portions 81 for wrapping the respective toes of a foot. In addition, a rubber strap 82 is attached to the open end of the bag-shaped member to secure the device 80 in position by catching the strap 82 on the heel.
With the above-described arrangement, the gauze or cotton cloth is interposed between the toes, thereby enabling the portion between each pair of adjacent toes to be dried.
FIG. 13 is a sectional view of another conventional toe-base protecting device (U.S. Pat. No. 4,877,018).
As illustrated, the toe-base protecting device 90 comprises two fibrous layers 91 each comprising a bundle of a large number of fibers which are longitudinally put close together in a columnar shape, the two fibrous layers 91 being vertically spaced at a suitable distance. A flexible shell member 93 is wound around the peripheries of the upper and lower fibrous layers 91 to define a cavity portion 95 therebetween, and particulate substances 97 having a hygroscopic function are accommodated in the cavity portion 95.
In use, the device 90 is put on the base portion between two toes 98 and sandwiched therebetween in such a manner that the upper and lower fibrous layers 91 are disposed at the upper and lower sides, respectively, of the area between the two toes 98, as shown in FIG. 14, to dry the base portion between the toes 98 by means of the particulate substances 97.
The device 80 shown in FIG. 12 suffers, however, from the problem that, since the gauze or cotton cloth is thin, the base portion between each pair of adjacent toes cannot be relieved from sweatiness and dried satisfactorily.
In addition, since the device 80 is structured to cover the toe-side half of a foot completely with gauze or cotton cloth, it is bulky, and if the user wears a sock over the device 80, it pinches his or her foot.
On the other hand, the device 90 shown in FIG. 13 involves the problem that, since the fibrous layers 91 project to the upper and lower sides of the toes 98, as shown in FIG. 14, if the user walks with the device 90 put between the toes 98, the lower fibrous layer 91 is pushed up when the foot is set on the ground, causing the toes 98 to be pushed up, which makes the user feel uncomfortable.
In addition, since users are different from each other in the shape of the portion between toes, the level of pressure applied to each toe and the way in which each toe bends and stretches when the user walks, the device 90, which is merely put between two toes, may come off the area between the toes when the user walks or takes exercise for a long time, resulting in the effectiveness being lost.